


A Ruby Blade

by PirateQueenCatherine



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Gen, Red Mage | RDM (Final Fantasy XIV), Secret Santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:21:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28364601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PirateQueenCatherine/pseuds/PirateQueenCatherine
Summary: Jezebel Ruby took up the axe when she was first thrust into the position of being a Warrior of Light. But she wanted something a little more flamboyant, something with flair. She was lucky to have met X'rhun Tia.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	A Ruby Blade

“You really have to have some patience, Jezebel.” X’rhun sighed, as the target dummy swayed back and forth, taunting her after the spell had whizzed past it. 

“Three seconds is a long time!”

“It’s two.”

“Feels more like three.” She sighed, cracking her focus away from the plain silver rapier. 

“That’s because you’re focusing more on the black magic, too, you have to-”

“Yes, I know, red magic is about combining them both. Hey, why isn’t it called grey magic? If you mix white and black, you don’t exactly get red.” 

X’rhun didn’t respond, he simply watched as Jezebel returned to her form, balancing the rapier forward and her focus in the rear hand. She brought it forward, creating one staff once again, attempting to cast once more. 

“Is it some Amdapor thing, it’s always some fucking Amda-”

Her staff exploded in light, and X’rhun shook his head as she dropped it.

“I can answer those questions, but you really should talk less when you’re trying to learn.”

The apprentice grumbled as she followed the focus as it rolled across the grass. A true walk of shame.

“At least I’m not throwing it in a panic or chopping like an axe any more.”

He smiled warmly. 

“You’ve made a lot of progress, yes, I’m being harsh because I can see you’re almost there.”   
  
It had been a few weeks since Jezebel had taken up the rapier. The first week was about teaching her the Elezen ways of the weapon.

(This meant: telling her to stop swinging it like a cutlass.)

The second week had been about teaching her how to relax.

(And not grip onto the focus as if it might fly away.)

And now, she was finally learning how to combine black and white magics into spells. If only she had the patience to hold her staff for just the right amount of time.

“The sun is going down, though. And much as I admire your dedication to trying over and over again, Ms. Ruby, it would really be best to get in for some food and rest. Taking care of your aether is important, and I’ll be moving on from Thanalan soon, I wouldn’t want to leave you with bad habits.”

Much as she wanted to protest, he was probably right. She could feel her upper arms getting weak, not through work, but as if the energy just wasn’t there. That must be how the aether drain manifests, she thought to herself as she holstered the rapier. 

It was a long walk back towards Ul’dah, only made to feel longer by the dry heat and uncomfortable stone cobbled paths. The fact that the practice rapier was designed for someone closer to X’rhun’s height didn’t help, it would sometimes scratch at her calf as she walked.

“So you’re leaving Thanalan soon?” Jezebel broke the silence.

“I try to move around a lot.”

“You don’t strike me as the edgy, lone wolf type.”

“Oh, believe me, I’m not! I’d much rather have a troupe. But there’s not many red mages left. I’ll settle in somewhere when there’s enough to keep it going.”

Jezebel left that statement hanging for some minutes as they walked. She was very clearly considering offering him some company, her face often betrayed any desire to hide emotions or thought.

“That wasn’t a not-so-subtle request for your company, Jezebel, before you offer. I’d rather you stayed in Ul’dah, in fact. Enough aether to go around, and I like to know new red mages are in the safe hands of people like the Sultan. And I’ll be back around soon enough, I enjoy this place far too much.”

“I’ll do my best not to snap the rapier in two by the time you return then.”

He laughed, and patted her on the back - at least, as far up as he was able to reach.

“I wouldn’t be leaving if I didn’t already trust you not to start chucking the focus at morbols.” 

“Probably shouldn’t tell you about last night’s practice then.” She replied, with a dry tone and blank expression that was rare for her.   
  
His ears twitched and tail stiffened as he looked up, shocked.

“A joke, X’rhun. I haven’t done anything like that.” Jokes like that were the only time she was able to keep a straight face.

“Right! Of course. Of course, very good, Jezebel. Of course you wouldn’t.”

“But I could.”

“...still a joke?”

She didn’t reply.

* * *

Much as Jezebel had aimed to put down the axe for some time, her need for food and shelter meant an adventurer like her had little choice but to keep it nearby when she was regularly given work dealing with creatures outside Ul’dah. Days continued such that when the sun was up, she would cleave for the gil to afford spending her evenings practicing the rapier, using her weekends to understand more of red magic, and sometimes having a late night repairing holes in the wall from the tip of her sword being sharp enough to plunge through the plaster.

Two days following their last training together, X’rhun had left Jezebel. He had left her with two things: one was a pile of books on red magic and the balancing of the aether that made it up, encouraging her to do some reading when she felt too weak to physically practice. The other was a metronome, primed at a perfect two seconds.

“I promise this isn’t a joke.” He had told her. 

Unfortunately, she wasn’t one to learn from books.

Not that she didn’t read (well, she didn’t, but that’s beside the point, she  _ could _ , she just rarely found the time). It was that she struggled to learn the motions when reading them.

A half circle cutover into thrust made no sense. When reading about Elezen treatises on the rapier, it made little sense when they described binding the foible. An appel wasn’t so much a movement so much as it was a misspelled fruit. 

But after watching X’rhun make the movements, and practicing it on him, it would make sense. A practical learner, people had said in the past. 

The closest thing to that now was a vertical post with a branch crudely affixed. 

So instead, she turned to the focus, to the red magic itself. To be a true red mage, you must be an expert in both bladework and casting, but it’s not like she had much of a sparring partner. The blowflies out in Thanalan were a bit too jittery to practice precise movements on, too. 

A kind farmer who had a stock of hay had been kind enough to allow Jezebel to practice on it, tying the stuff up in cloth bags to lift onto sticks like target dummies. It was a little system X’rhun had recommended.

The issue with that was that X’rhun had picked it up near Ishgard. An area where hay was made of a different strain, one that had adapted to the cold. One that retained water, and struggled to burn.

The hay in Ul’dah was, as Jezebel’s eyebrows and clothes discovered, far more flammable. It would explode in an orange-brown blaze at the first spark, which, thankfully, meant even Jezebel’s first attempts at a Verfire looked spectacular. The birds watching from nearby were less impressed. 

It continued for some weeks. It was the longest she’d ever stayed in Ul’dah, too, to the extent that she had gotten to know the people well. For once, those who needed her help had started to come to her, all she needed to do was sit in a bar for a few hours. Much easier than doing detective work to discover who is having trouble with bandits. And it’s much more enjoyable to watch gil walk in when you have a drink in your hand. 

And she certainly improved. Much to her dismay, the metronome helped. She would slam the focus down on her rapier, channeling through it as she took a deep breath in, only exhaling when the spell released, lightning arcing forward as a gust of wind threw dust up into the air afterward. 

At first it was somewhat of a fluke. A tired attempt that even she hadn’t expected to go right. That was probably why she was standing too close to the dummy in the followup, when the Verfire explosion singed the ends of her coat. 

“Part of the trim,” she’d tell X’rhun when he returned. “You just didn’t notice it before.”

It snowballed ahead from that fluke. Like a switch in her head being turned on, her breathing would slow, thoughts spin in 2 second intervals, only to flash brilliantly half a second later. Her body felt like it was pulsing, as white and black aether built up within her, veins in the back of her hand bulging out. It was as though she was compelled to make a riposte.

But when she did, it would fall flat. Nothing doing, as if all that energy just went stale in the moment she thrust her arm out. No flash of red from the rapier itself, it felt like, piercing through the hay but going limp after. 

As much as she tried, as much as she copied stance and form and motions from the static images in the limited (and, typically, written by people with even less of a grasp on modern language than Urianger) books she had, it never left those bright red scorch marks on the target and through the air. 

* * *

It was about a full moon and a half before X’rhun returned, this time wrapped in an extra coat. His tail waved and ears twitched with glee when he noticed Jezebel was still clad in red. 

“You have no idea how happy it makes me to see you practiced, Ms. Ruby.” He said, trying to hide that excitement with an almost professionalism, although the tight hug he went in for was more one of a friend. 

“Not going to comment on the frayed strands?” She replied, pulling at the hem of her coat when after he had let go.

“A red mage coat should be worn, not kept locked away. Has it been going well, then?”

She shrugged, lifting her focus - not physically, not any more, just unclipping it from her belt and allowing it to rise above her palm. 

“This part? Piece of cake. The rapier, though…” She trailed off, snapping her fingers to show a spark of fire just to illustrate the point. 

“Excellent! Because I come bearing gifts. Walk with me, Jezebel?”

After quickly finishing her drink at the pub they had met in, she followed X’rhun out.

“Sorry for immediately dragging you back outside, but I left some things at the inn I’m staying at and, well, I thought the walk might be nice.”

“I’m not averse to leaving the pub!”

He laughed.

“I know, I know. I just feel strange asking to meet you there then taking you away from it. But I felt far more strange asking you to come to my room.”

“Not the first person to say that, I suppose. But you’re not quite my type, sorry, X’rhun.”

He coughed awkwardly, adjusting his hair and looking about to see who had overheard her saying that.

“Not, uh, not really on my mind, but I suppose thank you for the clarification, Jezebel.”

With a slap on his back, she turned down to him.

“So where have you been, anyway? What’s with the extra coat?”

“Oh! Yes. I was back in Ala Mhigo for some time. The coat’s because, well, I got a ship back, and...look, not to fulfil the stereotype or anything, but I really don’t like getting wet. Haven’t had a chance to take the coat off since I returned.”

“Is that why there’s no water aspected spells in the books you gave me?”

“I...hadn’t thought about that. Not intentionally, but I certainly am not complaining.”

They continued down the Sapphire Avenue.

“Anyway, I was back in Ala Mhigo helping out some old friends I have there, looking for any evidence of my old brothers.”

“You’re from Ala Mhigo?”

“Hm? Oh, sorry, no, not brothers by blood. The Crimson Duelists, the uh, modern Red Mages. We were part of the Ala Mhigan revolution, years ago, until, well, past tense.”

Jezebel gave a solemn nod.

“So I go back there regularly,” he continued, “just to see if I can ever find them. Never found some of the bodies. Anyway!”

He stood upright as they reached an inn, and gestured at the ground.

“Wait here, I’ll bring the gift down.”

It was unlike X’rhun to have such glee, especially after talking about something that was so clearly affecting. But she didn’t have much say, as he darted behind a door. Through an open window above, she could hear him talking to himself as he rattled bags around, looking for whatever it was. He clearly was taking very good care of this gift.

Some minutes later, he reappeared, his head emerging around the corner of the door.

“Now, there’s a few core problems with my experience as a teacher. I learned red magic in Ala Mhigo, with many of the Hyur who live there. Which means I uh…have experience with people of the same height as me. That rapier is, if I’m honest, suited for a much, much shorter person.”

He snuck around the door, carrying a long quiver-like bag.

“And part of why I wanted to return to Ala Mhigo was to restock on weapons for folks who, well, aren’t as small as me.”

From the bag, he pulled a silver rapier. Far more elegant than the one Jezebel had been using, with a red crystal hilt and gilded guard. The focus came after, a red crystal within a gold cage.

And, most importantly - about 60% longer than her current one. Weightier, too, as she gleamed from X’rhun struggling to hold it correctly. 

“I think you’d do far better, and find yourself perfecting zwerchhaus, with this, Ms. Ruby.”

With his head bowed, he held it out for her. She did not have the words to respond, and decided to thank him with a brief display of poise. The focus floated up into her hand as if they were already connected, and she lifted the rapier towards an imaginary foe. Her hips lowered, stance grounded, and she thrust forward.

For the first time, everything was in balance. The added weight gave her thrust gravity, she no longer swung the blade. Her arm and body were carried forward by the blade, and a red-and-black flame surrounded the blade for just a brief moment. 

“Try not to outdo me too much, Jezebel.” X’rhun replied, trying not to smile too hard.

The roe sheathed her blade, and grabbed X’rhun. He yelped as he was pulled straight into her chest, arms wrapped around as if she were preparing to snap his small neck instead of going in for a hug.

“Hnnf...uhg...Jethebe…” He croaked.

“Thank you.” She whispered, squeezing tighter. His back made an audible creak, it was hard to tell if the sound or feeling of it was more painful. 

Eventually she let go, after making the Miqo'te a more fitting shade of crimson. He fixed the creases in his coat before standing upright.

“Ahem...I heard there was an adamantoise causing some problems for the farmers just south of the city. Would you join me in dealing with it, and perhaps show off your fleche with this new rapier?”

“Gladly.” She replied with a smug grin.

* * *

X’rhun stood back and watched. Hmph, she thought to herself, well at least sorting this out is better than paying gil through the nose for this rapier.

With a deep breath, she approached the adamantoise. Far enough that it didn’t register her as a threat, yet. Veraero. A wind tunnel that would blast the adamantoise, followed by a crack of lightning going right through the centre. It shot over the creature’s shell, fizzling away. Followed by the same again, she could feel aether building in the focus.

It was approaching now, charging forward towards her. As her second casts went off, she thrust herself forward, blade leading as it clashed with the adamantoise’s jaw. 

The rapier felt like it was moving ahead of it, ready to fly out of her hand and bury itself in the shell. Not yet.

After deflecting a bite, she began to cast again. This time into a Verfire, which exploded around her, just far enough that she could feel the heat brush across her skin but never burned her. Then came another spell, into a Verstone, causing the earth to shake under the Adamantoise’s feet, disrupting it before it could attack. It had barely had a chance to snap at her. 

X’rhun nodded and watched as her rapier glowed.

And in one fluid motion, she cracked the focus away from the rapier and brought herself into stance. Hips lowered, right arm angled just slightly out, left held up for the focus, giving it ample space to release its accumulated mana. The rapier felt light for once, like a needle aimed directly at a crack in the shell.

With a roar - from Jezebel, not the creature - she thrust forward, the blade sticking into the shell before splitting it in two with a blaze. It flinched, stumbling a step away from her as she pulled the sword out, taking just a moment to admire the exposed weakness. Her sword continued to glow, and she attacked once more, using the forte to bash against the crunching jaw as the blade swiped down the flesh.

That could have been it, the creature would have died at that wound. The wound would have been enough, but an explosion of aether sealed it back up, overwhelming the creature and effectively poisoning it instead, an overdose of white and black mana expelled that would leave it limping back to home to die there. But her combo would finish it off.

Jezebel retreated to her back foot, returning to the en garde position, for one final set of thrusts. Each one hit deeper than the last, her blade still glowing hot with red and black flames. And by the fourth, the adamantoise’s legs gave way. It fell with a thud, and Jezebel sheathed her blade.

WIth two claps, X’rhun stepped forward and patted Jezebel on the back. 

“You made it look easy.”

“The rapier made it feel easy.”

He laughed at her humble reply. She smirked and put an arm around his shoulder.

“Thank you, X’rhun.” She whispered, the tone of her voice making it clear that one was genuine.

“An honour to induct a new Red Mage to the ranks, Ms. Ruby.”

“So when do I get a hat as fancy as yours?”

He grinned. 

“When I find one that fits that head of yours.”

**Author's Note:**

> Merry Christmas Ben. <3


End file.
